Great Lakes Lacquer August 2016 Limited Edition Swatches and Reviews

*press samples*

Hi guys! Sorry for the lack of Nibs & Nails this week, but it's just been a really hectic getting all of these giveaways together. All previous winners have been contacted, so if you haven't heard from me, you haven't won (yet). There are plenty more giveaways to come, so you still have a chance to be a winner (I mean, we're all winners here anyway, right?). In other blog news, I should probably let you guys know that I will be on vacation next week. Don't miss me too much! I try not to take many blog breaks, but it happens from time-to-time.

Great Lakes Lacquer will be releasing 3 limited edition polishes on August, 1st at 3:00 PM EST in their Etsy shop. While you're there, pick up my duo of Nibs & Nails polishes inspired by Diamine fountain pen inks for $15 (you save $1 that way). Shall we get started?

Polish 'M Spring 2016 Collection Swatches and Review: Summer Berry

Polish 'M Summer Berry (3 coats)

Hi guys! This is going to be the shortest of short posts tonight. I had big plans for making a large post, but I was just hating my swatches so I decided to start over. The other reason why this is going to be short is because the color I have tonight is sold out, so I figured it would be better to not dwell on something you can't have at the moment. Summer Berry is a repromotion of a collection released in 2013 from Laquerlicious (Michelle's old brand) that features a bright pink crelly base with blue, pink, and purple glitter and light blue/purple shimmer. It's called berry, but it's definitely not that deep berry color you see all the time from OPI. Anyway, Michelle makes the best crellies, and Summer Berry is no exception. I found it to be a little sheer, but you should be able to get away with 2 or 3 coats depending on your nail length and application.

You can find Polish 'M on their storefront, Facebook, Instagram, and Facebook Group pages (don't forget to use the code Right30 for 30% off your purchase).

Pretty Woman NYC Sand Collection Swatches and Review: Turks & Caicos

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Pretty Woman NYC Turks & Caicos (2 coats)

Hi guys! Don't forget to enter the latest Nibs & Nails giveaway from Contrary Polish that started on Friday. Tonight I have a polish from a brand you may have seen at your local Walmart, Rite Aid, or Five Below store. Personally, I've only seen the Nail Medic system at the Walmart near me. Maybe your neck of the woods has Pretty Woman NYC nail polishes, but I've never seen them. No worries, you can get any of their items on their website with free shipping on all orders.

Turks & Caicos comes from the Sand Collection which is pretty much like the Zoya PixieDusts. Did I realize this before I applied the polish? Nope! I used one thin coat of topcoat for the photos above, but you can see that it just ate it up completely. Anyway, Turks & Caicos is a turquoise blue polish with loads of silver and blue glitter. This polish is extremely opaque, and you will definitely not need more than 2 coats to cover the nail line. It dried really quickly even with my addition of unnecessary topcoat. I'm surprised to say this, but I think I like these as much the PixieDusts. Good job, Pretty Woman!

You can get all of their polishes on their website, and most of the colors retail for $7.99. Learn more about Pretty Woman NYC on their Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter pages.

Nibs & Nails Presents Contrary Polish in Stormy Grey (inspired by J Herbin Stormy Grey Ink) | Swatches and Giveaway!

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Hi guys! Welcome back to yet another week of Nibs & Nails where we ask indie polish makers to dupe or simply be inspired by popular fountain pen inks with shimmer or sheen. There's still a few hours left in the Great Lakes Lacquer giveaway, and both polishes are now for sale in their Etsy store. Go purchase the duo for $15 or individually for $8.50. Tonight we invite a new brand to the blog...I've wanted to purchase from Contrary Polish for a long time, so I'm super thrilled to be able to work with Carrie. If you know anything about Contrary Polish, you know that she can rock a shimmer polish.

Up until now we have only looked at the ink brand Diamine, but there are other companies on the shimmer and sheen bandwagon. J Herbin is a French company and they were the first company to release an ink with shimmer and it's called Stormy Grey. I love grey polishes, and I love shimmer, so you can only imagine excited I am about this polish! Carrie was kind enough to provide a second polish for a giveaway, so stay tuned to the end of the post to enter!

As always, my husband has thoroughly reviewed J Herbin's Stormy Grey ink on his blog called Inkdependence. Let's get a better look at the ink and polish, shall we?

Polish 'M Summer 2016 Rest & Relaxation Collection Swatches and Review: Do Your Best and Push Pause

Hi guys! Don't forget that the next installment of Nibs & Nails will be this Friday. The giveaway for the 2 custom Great Lakes Lacquer polishes will also end (followed by the release of the polishes in her shop on the 22nd). Tonight I have 2 polishes from Polish 'M's Rest & Relaxation collection which will be restocked this Friday at 11 AM PST on her website. Michelle is also celebrating her 4th year in business, so congratulations to her! This celebration happens to come with a special pre-order for a polish called 'The 4th Year' which goes from July 22-29. Oh, and the summer cuticle oil scents will be on sale for $5. Ok, enough with the information overload; let's get on with some pictures!

Polish 'M Spring 2016 Spring Collection Prototypes: #21 and #27 Plus Discount Code

Hi guys! I hope your week is off to a great start! Don't forget that I have another giveaway going until this Friday (when the Nibs & Nails polishes will also be released in the Great Lakes Lacquer store). I bought several polishes from Michelle at Polish 'M with the 30% off code Right30. Feel free to use the code as much as you want (minus Polish for Pit Bulls). The two spring prototypes I have to show tonight are still on sale for $3 each ($2.10 with the discount code) so you may want to buy them soon if you are remotely interested in them. Let's take a look!

Nibs & Nails Presents Great Lakes Lacquer in Lightning Streaks Blue and The Shimmering Gold Sea (Inspired by Diamine) Swatches + Giveaway!

*purchased with a blogger discount*

Hi guys! Welcome back to yet another week of Nibs & Nails where we ask indie makers to dupe (or just be inspired) by popular fountain pen inks. Don't forget, last week's giveaway from Heather's Hues ends tonight at midnight so enter now! Tonight I welcome one of my favorite brands, Great Lakes Lacquer. If you haven't seen my swatches of her 1-year anniversary collection called The Great Ones from this past Sunday, you can see those here. Obviously she can rock a blue polish, so I asked her to work on 2 inks from the Diamine Shimmertastic set called Blue Lightning and Shimmering Seas. Stay with me to the end of the post to see how you can win these polishes (you will also be able to purchase your own set from Great Lakes Lacquer next week)! 

As always, my husband has his reviews of the inks on his blog (Inkdependence), so feel free to click here for more about Blue Lightning and here for Shimmering Seas. 

LeChat Dare to Wear Rustic Retreat Collection Swatches and Reviews: Down to Earth, Hazelwood, and Wild Berry

Hi guys! Don't forget to enter my 2 giveaways that end later this week. Spoiler alert, there's another giveaway coming later this week! I'll be the first to admit that my swatches tonight aren't my best work. It happens, but I don't really have enough time to redo them. They come from the Rustic Retreat collection from Dare to Wear which is the polish side of LeChat. LeChat is best known for their Perfect Match gel line that you may have seen at your local nail salon. The brand can be a little hard to find (I found these at my local nail supply store), but if you still haven't found it locally, you can still purchase these on Transdesign. The entire 6-piece Rustic Retreat mini set will set you back a whopping $4.95. Yeah, you read that right. Swatch time!

Great Lakes Lacquer The Great Ones Collection Swatches and Reviews

*purchased with a blogger discount*

Hi guys! No, you aren't seeing things, I am actually posting on a Sunday. Mariah (from Great Lakes Lacquer) has a new 5-piece collection coming out this Tuesday, July 12th at 3 PM EST in her Etsy shop and I have swatches of them all to show you tonight. Did I mention that these are all inspired by the Great Lakes? I know I've mentioned it several times in the past that I grew up near Lake Erie. I also did a lot of research for my Master's Degree and Ph.D. looking at some of the environmental problems facing the Great Lakes today. Our freshwater systems are so important, so I'm glad Mariah decided to use them as her muse for The Great Ones Collection. Just a warning, this is a picture-heavy post. Follow me after the break for my thoughts...

Nibs & Nails Presents Heather's Hues A Most Majestic Blue (Inspired by Diamine Majestic Blue) Swatches + Giveaway!

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Welcome back to week 2 of Nibs & Nails! I basically provide an indie maker with a particular fountain pen ink for them to dupe (or just be inspired by). This week we welcome Heather's Hues to dupe a popular ink from the brand Diamine. Unlike many of the other inks I'll be showing in the coming weeks, I asked Heather to do one that does not have shimmer in it. Instead, when you put a lot of Majestic Blue on some good paper, you'll notice that there is almost a redish sheen to it. Duochrome anyone? It just so happens that tonight Heather is also releasing a collection called Day and Night tonight, so make sure to check out the site later tonight. She was also kind enough to provide a second bottle of A Most Majestic Blue for you guys, so check out the Rafflecopter widget below to enter now!

Also, make sure to check out what Inkdependence has to say about the ink before or after you read here.

Top: Diamine Majestic Blue

Middle: Heather's Hues A Most Majestic Blue (with topcoat)

Bottom: Heather's Hues A Most Majestic Blue (with matte topcoat)

It's really hard to tell in these photos, but Heather did a better job at duping this than it immediately appears. It looks like A Most Majestic Blue is a lot brighter than the ink, but if you look at where just a little bit of ink was laid down, the color is really similar to the polish. If you have a finer nib and less ink going on the paper, the swatches would look much more similar. Also, the red/pink duochrome sheen seen on the nail and bottle are pretty much nonexistent in the bright light here. Let's see if I can get a better picture of the duochrome. 

Heather's Hues A Most Majestic Blue (2 coats with topcoat)

Nope, so far I haven't done a better job at showing the duochrome. The polish is a bright blue shimmer with a subtle red/pink flash. It dries down to a satin finish without topcoat, and it actually looks really similar to what the ink dries to on paper (+1 for Heather!). As you can see, bright LED light is not the best to capture this warlock.

The next pictures were taken in both of my bathrooms. Yeah, they are blurry, but that's not the point. DO YOU SEE IT?! Man, not being able to capture the duochrome was killing me! And my finger hair is just gross, sorry.

Like I said before, this dries down to a satin finish, so here is what it looks like without a shiny topcoat:

There you have it! I hope you're enjoying this segment as much as I am. To win this polish, enter below. As far as I know, this will not be released in her store at this point, so you have the chance to win a pretty rare color.

Giveaway Rules:

1. Open to the US Only (I'm so sorry my lovely international readers...I hope to have a non-polish giveaway for everyone so it will be easier to ship)
2. Please do not use giveaway or empty accounts. Winners will be checked for verification.
3. You must be at least 18 years old to enter
4. The giveaway will end on July 15th at midnight (EST)
5. A winner will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter. They will have 48 hrs to respond before new winners are chosen.
6. Please do not immediately unfollow after the giveaway ends. :-(

a Rafflecopter giveaway



*These polishes were provided by the company or PR representative. All reviews are based solely on my opinion. For more information, please see my full disclosure at the bottom of the site*

Polish 'M Nail Polish Swatches and Review: Stained Glass Window II + 30% Off Discount Code For You Guys!

Polish 'M Stained Glass II (2 coats) over 1 coat of a basic grey creme

Hi guys! I'm sure several of you feel the same way when I say that today does not feel like Wednesday! Unfortunately I have another polish to show you today that is discontinued, but don't worry because there is a bright side. Michelle from Polish 'M provdided me with a discount code for 30% off all items except for the Polish for Pit Bull colors. All you need to do is enter the code Right30 to get the discount. Did I mention she has her spring crellies on sale for only $3 for full-sized bottles? And that's not after using the discount, either! A few colors are currently out-of-stock, but I believe Michelle will be restocking some of them if a favorite is sold out.

Tonight I have Stained Glass II which is a densely packed holographic silver microglitter with multicolored circle, hexagonal, and square glitter. I used 2 coats over a simple grey basecoat because macro photos tend to show ever little bald spot, but I'm sure you'd be able to get away with using it on its own. I actually really like it either way. And how can you resist circle and square glitter? For the largest circular glitter pieces, you will need to do a little bit of fishing, but the rest of the glitter comes out easily in regular brush strokes. The silver microglitter isn't really gritty, but you may need to double-up on topcoat due to the amount of glitter in here.

Like I said, you can't find Stained Glass II for sale anymore, but she has some other gorgeous polishes that you can use that 30% discount code on. You can find Polish 'M on their storefront, Facebook, Instagram, and Facebook Group (which I am a part of!) pages.

Happy 4th of July with KBShimmer Summer 2013 Swatches and Review: Pimp My Pride

KBShimmer Pimp My Pride (3 coats)

Happy 4th of July to my American readers! And Happy Manic Monday to the rest of you! I've been holding onto this polish for months, just to show for the 4th. I got Pimp My Pride with that KBShimmer mystery box I bought awhile ago. It was released several years ago (2013) and didn't have a label on it (which I'm sure is why it was in the mystery box). If you know anything about KBShimmer, you know that she has great crellies...especially white crellies. Pimp My Pride is a patriotic white crelly with red and blue hexagonal and short bar glitter. I love stumpy bar glitter! Like most white crellies it needed 3 coats for full coverage, but it still applied well. This one isn't for sale anymore, but you can still find other great crellies like it on the KBShimmer site. Make sure to check them out on their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more information.

Have a safe and fun night! Don't forget to sign up for the giveaway I posted on Friday.

Nibs & Nails Presents the BLUSH Lacquers Polish in Red Lustre Lips (inspired by Diamine Red Lustre Ink) | Swatches and Giveaway!

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Nibs & Nails is back and better than ever! Some of you may not remember, but way back in 2014 my husband and I had a Wordless Wednesday Nibs and Nails segment highlighting some of my nail polishes and his fountain pens. My husband also just-so-happens to have a popular ink and fountain pen blog called Inkdependence. We decided to join forces again to have indie brands dupe or just be "inspired by" popular inks made for fountain pens. This is just the beginning of many other great brands who have jumped on board to showcase their incredible talents. Many have also been gracious enough to include a polish to give away to a lucky winner! You will also be able to purchase your very own ink-inspired nail polish from a few brands (including the one I'm showing today). Some polishes will be one-of-a-kinds, while some will be for sale in the brand's store. I'm focusing more on the nail polish while my husband will be posting his review of the ink of the same day. Check out his blog post to supplement my post here. 

Without further ado, I would like to present this week's participant, BLUSH Lacquers. They are a new indie brand on the scene (the debut collection was released at the end of May), but they started off with a bang! There are several colors in the store I need to check out (their BLUSH box was released just today). The first ink I wanted to dupe was a Diamine Shimmertastic ink. Yup, there are inks with gold and silver shimmer in them! The more you know! 

BLUSH Lacquers Red Lustre Lips (2 coats with topcoat)

Working with Victoria from BLUSH Lacquers was so seamless. She's a newer brand, but don't think that means she doesn't know what she's doing. I am so imprssed with her version of the ink. It's a brick red (less brown and more red) with tons of gold shimmer. When comparing the polish to the original ink, it's slightly more pink and the shimmer shows up differently. There's nothing you can really do about the shimmer because the 2 bases are so vastly different. The brush on the bottle is long and thin and made it easy to apply in just 2 coats. If you take away the fact that this is inspired by a polish I like, I'd still love the polish on its own. I'm so used to applying topcoat that I didn't even think to mattify it at first. Here it is with a matte topcoat:

Now's the time to stop over to Inkdependence to see what's going on with the ink. Red Lustre Lips will be available in the BLUSH Lacquer Etsy site starting July 15th. I also have 1 bottle to give away to a lucky winner!

Giveaway Rules:

1. Open to the US Only (I'm so sorry my lovely international readers...I hope to have a non-polish giveaway for everyone so it will be easier to ship)
2. Please do not use giveaway or empty accounts. Winners will be checked for verification.
3. You must be at least 18 years old to enter
4. The giveaway will end on July 15th at midnight (EST)
5. A winner will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter. They will have 48 hrs to respond before new winners are chosen.
6. Please do not immediately unfollow after the giveaway ends. :-(

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*These polishes were provided by the company or PR representative. All reviews are based solely on my opinion. For more information, please see my full disclosure at the bottom of the site*